Syria submits plan to destroy its chemical weapons - OPCW

FILE - This Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 file photo shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, seen, during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, unseen, at the presidency in Tehran, Iran. Syrian President Bashar Assad says he won't step down before elections are held in his war-ravaged country. The Syrian leader's comments, published Saturday in the Argentine newspaper Clarin, highlight the difficulties the U.S. and Russia face in getting the Assad regime and Syria's political opposition to the table at an international conference envisioned for next month. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has submitted a declaration of its chemical weapons programme and a plan to eliminate them to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the organisation said on Sunday, meeting the first major deadline of the destruction plan.

Under a deal struck by the United States and Russia, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent experts to Syria after a sarin gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus in August.

The experts, supported by the United Nations, aim to oversee destruction of chemical weapons production and mixing equipment in Syria by November 1, and deal with all chemical weapons materials by the end of June 2014.

On Thursday, "the Syrian Arab Republic submitted to the OPCW its formal initial declaration covering its chemical weapons programme" which "includes a general plan of destruction for consideration by the OPCW Executive Council", the watchdog said in a statement on Sunday.

"Syria's submission is in line with the deadline," it said.

The OPCW, which won the Nobel Peace Prize this month, did not give details of Syria's arsenal, which is estimated at around 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents.

The OPCW deployment under a U.N. mandate helped avert a U.S. strike against President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting an insurgency that started in 2011 when his forces cracked down on peaceful pro-democracy protests.

While the world's worst chemical weapons attack in 25 years may not be repeated in Syria after the arsenal has been destroyed, both Assad's forces and rebels continue to kill with conventional weapons daily.